A friend recently posted with regard to some of the books she read as a child; books that set her reading habits in train. For me, this has sparked a recollection, and remembrance of still more books in boxes under my bed, of the books that powered my imagination in younger days, books that fired and inspired, or were simply, mostly, a jolly good read. Whether it be flying through the air with Biggles, the extremely formulaic writing of The Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew, or the thrilling Willard Price adventure series. Not to mention one of my favourite childhood authors, Enid Blyton, of whom I read many including of course, the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Island of Adventure/etc. Then there were the short stories and one remains stuck in my head, as much for the title as for the story, a tale of assimilation I suppose, a story that still has resonance today, that is Ray Bradbury’s “Dark They Were, And Golden Eyed“.
snail
techie librarian; meatier than a seahorse
snail 
I never got into Biggles, but I did enjoy the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, and yes I loved Willard Price too, especially Amazon Adventure.
Titles that resonate with me are THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN (by the aforementioned Ray Bradbury, the best YA author ever) as well adapted-for-young-minds versions of BEOWULF and THE ODYSSEY. Despite the strange character and place names, the classics (even in their silly, adapted form) seemed to strike something within me that brings to mind Jung’s notions on the “collective unconscious”…
Hmmm…I did manage to read the Odyssey as an adult, albeit in prose form, and alas I am yet to read Beowulf, though it sits on my “to read” list. Particularly in latter primary school, I was quite taken in by a collection of scifi short stories, entitled after the Bradbury piece I cited. I have since devoured substantial chunks of the genre, wading through what was known as The Golden Age and beyond. I don’t read a great deal of SF these days though I dabble occasionally.
Hi Snail, I remember being haunted by a Ray Bradbury short in a book at school, ‘There will come soft rains” and also a short version of ‘Flowers for Algenon” by Daniel Keyes, turned me into a classic science fiction reader. [Hypatia]
Hi Hypatia, good to hear from ya. I have a sneaking suspicion I may have studied “There Will Come Soft Rains” in senior high school. What few bits I’ve googled seem to confirm that.